Sunset, Monterey Bay, Monterey California   I'm finding it difficult to write because everything I put down seems...

Cannery Row, Monterey, California   It started with a feeling. I don’t know if I can describe it, but I understand it...

Veteran's Park, Monterey, California   There are 185 wooden steps up the Stairway to Heaven to the Huckleberry Hill...

Sunrise, Monterey, California   The unemployment office sent me to a place called Mecanex Corporation, a factory that...

El Porto, Manhattan Beach, California   One of my favorite surf spots was El Porto in Manhattan Beach in front of the...

Bright stabs of sun filter through the fig tree, the plants glow with every shade of green while a blue-sky circling...

In the ‘70s, I lived with three roommates in a rental house in a Denver suburb. We set up the communal stereo on a shelf...

Monterey Bay, Pacific Grove, California That's the second time today I turned my head and caught someone staring at me or...

El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove, California   I had a New Year's Day missive written and ready to go about a shiny...

Toyon Berries, California Native   I'm not really qualified to write about the holiday season, having been a Scrooge...

Monterey Bay, Monterey California   It was in the forties this morning when I pushed my bike into the street. As I...

Pacific Grove,California   We walked into town to find a place to grab breakfast. The sky held a menageriof clouds...

El Carmelo Cemetery, Pacific Grove, California   Dawn, Sunday morning, as I rode my bike along the Monterey coast,...

I have a love affair with vintage audio gear. There, I said it. Even though this equipment tends to be large, uses a lot of...

Quarry Park, Monterey, California   Quarry Park is a short walk from our house. As the name suggests, it's an old...

Photo by Bob Beland   I was the house recording engineer for MCA Music's publishing studio when they created a new...

Lovers Point, Pacific Grove, California   Parked on the sidewalk in front of a restaurant on Alvarado Street, sat a...

Washington Park, Denver, Colorado   We recently spent our last day in Denver, my hometown, faced with the decision of...

Jettenbach, Germany   If I have a method to mixing a song or a film, it's this: I find the core essence, the essential...

Studio C, A&M Studios, Hollywood, Jim Novak, London May, Tracy Stevens (top), Robert Feist, Tim Swenson, 1988  ...

Berlinische Galerie, Berlin, Germany   As a recording engineer, I always recorded the first take, no matter what it...

Monterey Bay, Monterey, California   Hours before tourists would begin strolling the pier, I rolled up to the bay,...

Joseph Beuys, Das Kapital Raum, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin, Germany   My first paid job in a recording studio...

Monterey, California   Just after first light, I went out for a romp on my bike. In Monterey, California the sun rises...

Yesterday, I went through a large box of tapes I recorded years ago. The majority were demos or unreleased albums...

Zomevhere, Berlin, Germany   I used to have a fixed idea of how a snare drum should sound. I’d spend hours changing...

Asilomar State Beach, Pacific Grove, Colifornia   The sun sparkles through raindrops, dripping from trees like cut...

Quarry Park, Monterey, California   I love these rocks. In Quarry Park at the end of the path, in a place that holds a...

Ojai Valley, California   I worked for a record producer who loved chaos. I'd get to the studio early to set up mics,...

Upper West Side, Manhatten, NY   A subway station, Broadway and something, Upper West Side, the smell, and the wait,...

Clandestine holiday decorations courtesy of Scott Burns and friends.    My first electric car looked like a cross...

 Analog, Magnetic Biosphere   Do songs appear in your mind for no apparent reason? For me, they creep up in pieces,...

Downtown Monterey, California   The direction seems to reverse, and I become an observer instead of an initiator. It...

Lovers Point, Pacific Grove, California    I worked in a factory with an eclectic collection of characters. One of...

Veteran's Trail, Monterey, California   “If you wake up at 3:00 a.m., you should meditate," was my instruction. I took...

Ravenswork Studios, Venice, Califonia   The first time I met artist Jim Barrett, he climbed out of his white station...

“World Time Clock” Bettina Pousttchi, Berlinische Galerie   It all started in the late ‘70s in a recording studio in...

Haleakala National Park, Maui, Hawaii   The sky grew rich with deep orange hues streaking across a pale-blue sky as I...

Huckleberry Hill Nature Preserve, Monterey, California   I know a Frenchman named Marcel. Several of us would...

Cannery Row, Monterey, California   It rained most of the night, but in the morning, the sun broke through the clouds...

Downtown Monterey, Monterey, California   The other day, as I hiked down a trail with loose dirt, slipping and...

Monterey Bay, Monterey, California   The sun came up, and the birds and squirrels have been acting as nothing...

I’m listening to the rainfall, but I never seem to hear just the rain. It’s always connected with something else. My first...

Fisherman's Wharf, Monterey, California   I’ve been trying to think of something fitting to write about for this...

How can I put this … I'm not at war against it or anything but, I'm not into Christmas. My family had trees when I was a...

Venice Beach, California   When I met Tommy, he was managing a small motel spa in the desert. He had that slow,...

I was hired to record an orchestra for a Pacific Bell commercial campaign. We booked one of my favorite studios, Westlake,...

Premier 100 Guitar Amplifier   Volume gets everyone's attention. It's powerful, and all too often, can't be ignored....

I saw a raven sitting on a garden gnome. I’m not the kind of person to put a gnome in my yard, but they’re fun to look at,...

Pacific Grove, California I just found out that our favorite breakfast and lunch place, Holly's Lighthouse Cafe in Pacific...

Donna's eyes through a kaleidoscope, The Hamburger Bahnhof Museum, Berlin, Germany  We ventured out to one of our favorite...

Highway 1, Central California Coast All-day long, I pulled hot plastic parts out of a plastic injection molder. It was a...

Asilomar State Beach, California There's a famous story of Christopher Columbus landing in the new world. Even though he...

Monterey Bay, Monterey, California I went out for my Sunday morning romp. It was chilly, the good kind that wakes you up...

Via Paraiso Park, Monterey, California  There's a piece of audio equipment called a compressor, a powerful tool with...

Avila Beach, California This morning I peered out our bedroom window. The sun was angling across the yard, lighting up the...

Monterey, California Ara lived down the street in one of those houses that sits way back from the road with a big front...

Joshua Tree National Park, California I was walking next to a park several blocks from our house when I saw a dead crow in...

Berlin, Germany This morning, I walked through the yard of the Monterey Museum of Art and came across a pair of sculptures...

Venice Beach, California I’m walking through the Park. Spring’s starting to look like summer with leaved trees, a warm sun,...

Clearing Storm, Monterey, California So what do I do now? I remember the SAG AFTRA strike of 2000. The strike prevented...

Pacific Grove, California I love spring. Everything's coming alive, waking from a long sleep, welcomed by the warm sun,...

Tuolumne, California I have my version of this, a way of carrying myself that helps me fit into the world. It fascinates...

Desert Hot Springs, California Last week we drove out to the Mojave Desert to a 1940s motel with a natural hot spring. I've...

Mission Bell, Monterey, California I had a girlfriend, Ann, who owned a horse sixteen hands tall. She named it, Freedom,...